SOLAR-ACTIVITY IN THE PAST AND THE PROBLEM OF SOLAR DYNAMO

We study a new indirect index, or proxy data, of the solar activity - the intensity of luminescence of the microzones of cave flowstones. This index is in anticorrelation with the index 'deposition rate of 14C' and in direct correlation with the solar activity as in thermoluminescent time series of sediment cores. Luminescence time series was obtained for long time intervals with different time resolution (from 5 years per pixel to 5 pixels per year). In such time series the long minima of Maunder and Spoerer, the Medieval maximum and other well known long lasting minima and maxima as well as some new ones can be seen. The very good resolution permits to study the general statistical properties of past solar activity. Some of the results obtained refer to the problem of the mechanism of solar magnetic field generation. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.